According to the data, the national median weekly rent remained at a record high of $450 in January while Wellington and Auckland rents grew healthily.

Once again, Wellington’s rental market turned in the strongest performance of the major centres.

The city’s median weekly rents hit a new record of $480 a week, which was a year-on-year increase of 6.8%.

Head of Trade Me Property Nigel Jeffries said a sharp dip in the number of properties available to rent was exacerbating the situation.

“Over the past year the pressure of demand overtaking supply has seen the number of rental properties decline by over 70%.

“As one example a flat in Wellington received almost 100 enquiries within hours of being listed, and 350 enquiries in a week.”

However, Jeffries said the rental market in Wellington tends to be a seasonal one which peaks in January before easing back as autumn approaches.

“We’re expecting that to be the case this year too. It remains to be seen whether we’ll see median weekly rents in the capital break $500 but we’ll be watching with interest.”

After dipping slightly in December, Auckland’s median weekly rents were back up to $520 per week, which was a year-on-year increase of 4%.

Hawkes Bay and Waikato saw the biggest year-on-year leaps in median weekly rent, up 12.5% and 11.4% respectively.

Alongside Wellington, Manawatu and Northland both achieved new records in median weekly rents, at $300 and $353 per week respectively.

Going against the rising national trend, three regions have seen median weekly rents continue to fall. They were Canterbury, Gisborne and the West Coast.

In contrast to the other major centres, Christchurch saw its median weekly rents drop by 5% year-on-year.

Jeffries said the rental markets in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are all very different in nature.

“Auckland is holding steady and in tune with the rest of the country, while Wellington is highly dynamic with significant pressure on tenants.

“Christchurch on the other hand is being left in the dust, entering the third year of its cap on rental inflation… The balance of supply and demand is helping to keep things fairly muted.”

While the increase in median weekly rents is good news for landlords, the ongoing growth of house prices means that investor rental returns are not as strong as they have been in the past.